While the new year brings new changes and new challenges, it would seem that there is nothing new under the sun in Oklahoma. As the 2024 election cycle showed, Oklahoma remains deeply entrenched as quite possibly the reddest state in the union. Yet throughout January, straight out of the gate, Oklahoma made multiple national headlines regarding controversial proposals such as limiting homeless and domestic violence assistance to Oklahoma City and Tulsa, requesting more funds for the Bible mandate, a U.S. Supreme Court case regarding the first publicly funded religious online charter school and a willingness to allow U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids that would especially target Oklahoma’s significant Latino immigrant population. With the new presidential administration already approving extreme proposals from Project 2025, the nation’s right-wing shift is made most evident in Oklahoma, where the Oklahoma Freedom Caucus (OKFC) established itself at the end of last year as the bastion of conservative politics in the local Oklahoma Legislature. Straying from the politics of yesteryear, vocal opponents criticize this far-right development as “White Christian Nationalism” and “conservative extremism” that actively targets and persecutes religious, ethnic and sexual minorities.
Currently, the Oklahoma Republican Party, or GOP (“Grand Old Party”), controls all 12 statewide offices, including the governorship, all five U.S. House of Representative seats and both U.S. Senate seats. Furthermore, the state legislature has Republican supermajorities in both the House (81-21) and Senate (40-8). However, this development is relatively recent, as the Republicans did not hold both the House and Senate until 2008; Republicans did not have control of the House between 1921 and 2004. In 2008, the Republicans gained control of the Senate and have developed into a supermajority in both houses of the state legislature. Registered Republican voters became the majority in Oklahoma in 2015. Oklahoma was flaunted as the “perfect state,” “all-red” and “the most Republican state in the union” in the most recent presidential election, and the Republican Party has consecutively won every single one of Oklahoma’s 77 counties since the 2004 presidential election. Furthermore, Oklahoma has voted red in every presidential election since President Richard Nixon in 1968. Despite this, Oklahoma was considered a swing state in the 1976, 1980, 1992 and 1996 presidential elections.
Such trends have not gone unnoticed, as a recent viral meme during the 2024 election season placed Oklahoma up against Massachusetts. Comparing education, health care, quality of life, test scores and poverty, the Sooner State consistently ranked in the bottom five while the Bay State held the top rankings. Despite this, Governor Kevin Stitt maintains that Oklahoma will be a “Top Ten” state and recently explained, “If we make Oklahoma the best state for business … It makes Oklahoma the best state for education, the best state for infrastructure and the best state to raise our families.”
Culture war
Yet standing in the way of Oklahoma’s corporate ambitions is its own culture war. According to Senator Mark Mann (D-46), one of the greatest issues for Oklahoma’s future is an “economic development problem” in which “companies do not want to relocate staff to where they find legislation that is hostile to them, whether because of race or sexual orientation, which makes it much harder to recruit businesses to relocate here.” This was confirmed by the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber perception surveys that say the state is undesirable and actually blacklisted by most businesses on a list of large-scale site locations. While Oklahoma’s right to work legislation in 2001 made it attractive as the 22nd state to adopt such policies, it has since fallen to the wayside. Adding to this, the Chamber cited that Oklahoma’s health care policies also drive businesses away, with the state rated as 48th worst in the nation for women’s health and reproductive care as of 2024. Amongst such legislation has been House Bill 1449, or the “Women’s Bill of Rights,” which “preserves biological sex” at birth and clarifies interpretation of gender under state law. Despite claiming to champion women’s rights, the recent passing of this bill has been criticized as targeting Oklahoma’s LGBTQ+ population. Despite this, Oklahoma continues to try appealing to big businesses by passing Senate Bill 473, which would create a task force for the implementation of business courts in Oklahoma by 2026. Having already cut business tax down to a 4% corporate income tax rate and a half a percent personal income tax cut to 4.25%, the government budget shortfall only continues to increase after eliminating the state grocery tax on certain items last year.
As for hostile legislation, some of the most prominent national controversies are arising from the Oklahoma Department of Education.
“Some of Ryan Walters’ new proposed rules are frightening. His social study standards are a little frightening, the fact he wants police to be able to go into schools and perform raids, which I might add violates at least two federal laws,” Sen. Mann said. “All of that is concerning and gets us on the front page and the top of the evening news, and not in a good way. All the while, we are 49th in education and have some of the lowest health rates in the country.”
The senator also said that “another bill that [he is] very concerned about is moving school board elections from the Spring to the November ballot because it will unnecessarily politicize public education.” Unfortunately, Oklahoma public education has already become heavily politicized. At the forefront of the new presidential administration’s focus on illegal immigration, the Oklahoma Board of Education unanimously voted in favor of requiring parents to report their child’s citizenship and immigration status. The proposal is now moving to the state legislature and governor. The purpose was explained by State Superintendent Walters in a CNN interview: “We’re going to work with the Trump administration to enforce their anti-illegal immigration policy… That includes giving them information about students in our schools, families enrolled in our schools so they can make the decisions on how to deport families together and how to identify criminals in our school system.”
Religious freedom
Oklahoma is also at the forefront regarding interpretations of “freedom of religion,” the very fabric of the nation itself. In the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights (1791), there is the “Establishment Clause,” which states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Thomas Jefferson described this in 1802 as a “wall of separation between church and state.” In the Oklahoma Constitution, Section I-2 on Religious Liberty states, “Perfect toleration of religious sentiment shall be secured … and no religious test shall be required for the exercise of civil or political rights.” Furthermore, Section II-5 states, “No public money or property shall ever be appropriated, applied, donated, or used, directed or indirectly, for the use, benefit, or support of any sect, church, denomination, or system of religion.”
Making headlines across the nation, the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear two cases concerning the opening of the first publicly funded religious charter school: Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond and St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School v. Drummond. While the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board approved the St. Isidore of Seville Virtual Charter School by a 3-2 vote, it was denied by the Oklahoma Supreme Court in a 7-1 vote against using state funding for a religious public school, which was in violation of the Oklahoma Constitution. Siding with the school, Gov. Stitt called the upcoming ruling “one of the most significant religious and education freedom decisions in our lifetime” while TIME headlined an article “How Oklahoma Became Ground Zero in the War Over Church-State Separation” back in 2023.
In addition, the public school classroom itself is currently being targeted by multiple upcoming bills. After not passing last year, Rep. Jim Olsen (R-Roland) has refiled House Bill 1006 that requires a poster or framed copy of the Ten Commandments to be made evident in every public school classroom throughout Oklahoma. Louisiana passed a similar bill that went into effect Jan. 1, and it has already been blocked in multiple school districts after a U.S. federal judge deemed it “overtly religious” and unconstitutional. Furthermore, the controversial “Bible mandate” continues to face bipartisan opposition with questions of federal interpretation and legality. Originally setting aside $3 million to buy 55,000 Bibles and recently requesting another $3 million, Walters faced criticism in November of last year for buying over 500 copies of the Trump-endorsed Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the USA Bible, spending slightly under $25,000. Among the opposition, Rep. Denise Crosswhite Hader (R-Oklahoma City) did not receive a proper response from Walters during a House Appropriations and Budget Committee hearing about the possibility of receiving donated Bibles when “there’s lots of organizations that would be happy to supply those and save the taxpayers $3 million.”
Among the supporters of the Bibles in Classroom Initiative is the newly formed Oklahoma Freedom Caucus. Oklahoma is the 12th state to join the State Freedom Caucus Network. The far-right conservative group seeks to replace what it calls “liberal Republicans” with a “freedom-centered” focus advancing “conservative principles … the Constitution, limited government, personal responsibility, family responsibility, lower taxation, low regulation, traditional marriage and family.”
While some members of the Oklahoma Freedom Caucus remain anonymous, membership includes chair Sen. Shane Jett (R-Shawnee) and vice chair Sen. Dusty Deevers (R-Elgin). Defending the Bible mandate, Sen. Deevers claimed that those who oppose it align with the 1918 Constitution of the Soviet Union, citing “the church is separated from the state” and “the school is separated from the church” (a dissolution of the relationship once held by the Russian Empire and the Russian Orthodox Church).
Meaningful legislation
Ultimately, Sen. Mann remains hopeful for the direction of the state through the 60th Oklahoma Legislature in session between Jan. 7 and May 30. He emphasized the importance of focusing on local bills that would benefit constituents.
“I’m encouraged. I believe there are people on the other side of the aisle who want to be collaborative when it comes to pass meaningful legislation,” he said.
While holding onto his “non-negotiables,” which include school vouchers and LGBTQ+ and human rights, Sen. Mann is optimistic of unity on nonpartisan issues.
“We’ve got a lot of challenges that we could work together on and improve lives,” he said. “Access to health care, better public schools, better infrastructure.”
At the same time, he’s adamant about his concerns regarding some upcoming bills.
“Some of these bills that are being filed, some of the focus of our state leaders, doesn’t help us move the needle forward for anybody,” he said.
One of the most controversial proposals is Senate Bill 484, which would prevent municipalities with a population below 300,000 residents from providing services to the homeless. Only Oklahoma City and Tulsa meet this threshold, and the senator pointed out that the definition of homeless includes victims of domestic violence who are unhoused and, thus, the bill targets facilities such as battered women’s shelters.
There are over 3000 bills filed between the House and the Senate.
“Several other bills are almost comical,” Sen. Mann lightheartedly acknowledged. “Bear wrestling, electronic game cock fighting — whatever that means.”
This article appears in The OG Food Issue 2025.